Computer networks (hereinafter “networks”), such as local area networks (“LANs”), wide area networks (“WANs”), and the Internet, provide a convenient and efficient way for users at remote locations to communicate and to share assets. As used herein, an asset may refer to any suitable information that can be shared over a network. For example, an asset may include multimedia content, such as text, images, audio, video, and combinations thereof. Users may share an asset through client-side applications as well as server-side applications. A client-side application may utilize a suitable peer-to-peer protocol to enable communications between users over a network without a server computer. In this case, each client computer stores the assets. In contrast, a server-side application may utilize a central server, which stores the assets and facilitates communications between remote client computers. The central server may also be used by an asset provider to provide or sell assets to users.
As assets shared over a network continue to accumulate over time, the ability to organize, browse, and search for specific assets becomes a useful, if not necessary, feature for users. One way to classify assets is to associate a tag (i.e., one or more keywords) with each asset. In this way, a user can browse and search for an asset based on its associated tags. Tags may be generated by a content provider and/or generated by users. By allowing users to generate tags, more relevant tags may be generated because the users who generate the tags will likely be the same users who browse and search for specific assets based on the tags. That is, the users who request and utilize the assets have an interest in creating appropriate and useful tags for the assets.
When tags are generated, users typically have an option to enter a new tag and/or an option to select a previously generated tag, such as tags created by asset providers and users. Instead of displaying an exhaustive list of tags, many tag interfaces are adapted to suggest only the tags that are most frequently assigned to an asset. While this approach displays the most popular tags, it eliminates the introduction of so-called “long-tail” tags that are rarely assigned but in some cases are highly relevant or useful. By suggesting only the most frequently-assigned tags, these tag interfaces significantly reduce the chance that the long-tail tags will be assigned to the asset.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.